Carbureter attachment.



J. C. MAGNESS.

CARBURETER ATTACHMENT.

APPLICATION men APR. 12. I917.

l 269, 1 Q%, I Patented June 11, 1918.

UNITED STATES PATENT ornron.

JOHN C.-MAGNESS, OF NEW YORK, Y., ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TO ATLAS AUTO SPECIALTIES CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPO- BATION OF NEW YORK.

CARBURETER ATTACHMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 11, 1918.

Application flled April 12, 1917. .Serial 1T0. 161,589.

To all whom it may 00mm:

Be it known that I, JOHN C. MAGNESS, a

citizen of the United States, and resident v of the borough of Manhattan, in the city and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Carbureter Attachments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improvement in carbureter attachments and more specifically to a device for providing a certain amount of moist air for mixture with the motive fuel in the carbureter manifold.

Another object consists in providing such a device which has means for regulating the flow of the moist air to the manifold so that the amount of moist air supplied may increase as the demand. exercised upon the carbureter by the engine to which it'is at tached increases.

A further object consists in providing certain improvements in the form, construction and arrangement of the several parts whereby the above mentioned and other objects may be efiectively'attained.

A practical embodiment of my invention is represented in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 represents a front view, partly broken away, of the complete device,

Fig. Qrepresents a vertical section taken in the plane of the line II-II-of Fig. 1,

' looking in the direction of the arrows, and

Fig. 3 represents a horizontal section taken in the plane of the line III-III of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows. I

The device comprises a vessel or a tank 1, which may be of any suitable form. In the present instance, it is shown aseylindricaland composed of sheet material, which may appropriately be brass, copper, and the like. The exact size of the tank is not an essential of my invention, but I have found that a cylinder Ginches in height and 4% inches in diameter works ve well in connection with a carbureter suita le for a four-cylinder, four-cycle internal combustion engine having a bore of 3% inches and a stroke of 4% inches.

The tank 1 may be supported by a bracket 2 secured by means of screws 3 to the side of the engine or the dashboard. I prefer to locate it closely adjacent to the carbureter. It will be understood that the arms of the bracket 2 are firmly attached to the tank 1 as by brazing or soldering.

The tank 1 has, near the lower part thereof, a narrow, arcuate compartment 5, which is formed of similar sheet material suitably secured, as by brazing, to a portion of the inner wall of thetank 1. This compartment 5 is closed atthe top and bottom; but

it is provided in its side wall, near its lower may be sixteen in number and one-sixteenth They may also be of an inch in diameter. spaced one-sixteenth ofan inch apart. The hole- 7 may be three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. In giving these dimensions I do not intend to imply that they circumseribe the operative limits of the invention. They 4 or to the frame of the vehicle are stated merely as a guide which may be fgllowed in order to insure satisfactory re- 8 ts.

The tank 1 also has a hole in the top there'- of in which is fitted a bent pipe 8 which serves the double purpose of providing means for partly filling the tank with water,

denoted by 9; and of subsequently acting as an air inlet channel, which I choose to call the dry air inlet, in contradistinction to the outlet for the air after it has been moistoned, which will be hereinafter described.

The pipe 8 may conveniently have an inside diameter of of an inch.

A nipple 10 is secured, as by brazing or soldering, to the upper side wall of the tank 1, which nipple has both ends threaded; the

outer one for engagement with a pipe, (not ,shown) leading to the carbureter intake manifold, and the other for engagement with a valve 'cage 11. The channel through the nipple 10 may appropriately be :1- of an inch in diameter, and the pipe used'in connecting it to the manifold may be of similar size.

Within the cage 11, a conical valve 12 is fitted to slide in a bearing '13 that is screwed into the upper ends of the cage 11, which latter protrudes through the top of the tank 1. The extremity of the stem of the valve 12 carries one or more nuts 14:, which, together with the bearing 13, provide abutments for an expansion coil spring 15 that normally tends to hold the valve 12 at the limit of itsmovement away from its seat, as shown in full lines, Fig. 2. The limit of this movement is determined by the engagement of the body of the valve with the under face of the bearing 13, as also exhibited in full'lines, Fig. 2.

The valve cage 11 also has an inlet port 16, which may be i of an inch in diameter, and which provides communication between the interior of the cage 11 and theinterior ofthe tank 1.

A, suitable dome or cover 17 may be forced over the bearing 13 and cage 11, and held in position by frictional contact therewith, in order to protect the protruding stem of the valve and spring 15. The a bottom of the tank 1 may alsohave a suit.-

able drain plug 18.

In installing a device, it is merely necessary to fasten it by the bracket 2, in a suitable position adjacent the carbureter, and then connect the projecting end of the nipple 10, by means of a suitable pipe, with the intake manifold at a point above the carbureter. After the device has been installed and connected, it may be partly: filled with water, the maximum height of which is regulated by the hole 7 in the tank 1, which, for this purpose, acts as an overflow. Thus, the operator may simply pour water in through the pipe 8, until he finds the same overflowing through the hole 7; at which time the filling may cease.

In operation, when the motor is started, the suction generated by one or more of the 'pistons will be effective in the intake manifold in a well understood manner, and this will also produce a suction in the pipe, leading to the manifold from the nipple 10. This suction will draw the valve 12 down onto its seat, against the action of the spring 15, as shown in dotted lines, Fig. 2. The closing of the valve 12 is desirable in order to prevent, at this juncture, an influx of air, which would unduly weaken the mixture and handicap the starting of the motor. As soon as the motor is well in operation, it

the hole 7, thence downwardly through the water in the compartment 5, thence through the apertures 6 into the water 9 in the tank 1, and thence up through the air space in the tank 1 to the inlet port 16 in the valve cage 11. This air, which has become moist during its passage through the Water 9, will be drawn beneath the Valve 12 and through the nipple 10 into the intake manifold, to be mingled there with the motive gas generated in the carburetor; after whlch the whole will be taken into the cylinders of the engine for combustion.

It will be noted that, while the operation just described is going on, additional dry air is drawn into the tank 1 through the pipe 8, which dry air mingles with the very moist air' before the same passes throu h the port 16 into the valve cage 11 and t once onward. The opening through the pipe 8 also serves the purpose of preventing the suction in the tank 1 from becoming so great as to cause the water itself to boil up and pass into the cage 11 and the pipe leading therefrom to the manifold.

as the speed ofthe engine increases, the suction is asuis well understood, increased in the carbureter, which latter is almost invariably provided with means for enlarging the apertures through which the atmospheric air is drawn, as .the said suction is increased. This action serves to further decrease the suction generated in the pipe from the carbureter manifold to the nipple 10; and this decrease in suction permits the spring 15 to draw the valve 12 farther away are from its seat, thus increasing the volume of moist air which is drawn from the tank 1 into the intake manifold. llt will be seen that the way in which the valve is arranged enables the same to automatically compen-' sate (within limits) for the increase anddecrease in the speed of the engine, so as to provide more or less of the moist air to throttle is moved toward closed position, and the speed of the engine decreases, the valve returns toward its seat; and, at very low motor speeds, it is closed. The function of this valve has been found to be very desirable.

Although I have put this device through extensive and careful experimentation under varying conditions of use, and have data as to its effectiveness, it is not deemed appro priate to specifically set forth the same; but I may say that the device has been found to be highly effective in increasing' the power developed by the engine from a given amount of hydrocarbon fuel, such as gasolene, and that it also serves the purpose of preventing the formation of carbon deposits upon the reciprocating parts and combustion chamber Walls ofthe engine, as well as having an active tendency to remove any such deposits as may have accumulated.

As indicated before, I have given dimensions with some degree of exactness in order that suitable relative sizes and arrangements may be apparent, but it is to be understood that various changes may be resorted to in the form, construction, arrangement, size and relative proportions of the several parts without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention; hence I do not intend to be limited tothe details herein shown and described, except as they may be specifically included in the claims.

What I claim is:

1. A devicev of the character described comprising a liquid-holding tank, a compartment adjacent said tank, said compartment being in communication with the tank and with the atmosphere, and a dry air inlet spaced from the bottom of said tank.

2. A device of the character described comprising a liquid holding tank, a compartment adjacent saidtank, said compartment being in communication with the tank and with the atmosphere,a dry air inlet spaced from the bottom of said tank, and a moist air outlet also spaced from; the'bottom of said tank.

3. A device of the character described comprising a liquid holding tank, a compartment adjacent said tank, said compartment being in communication with the tank and with the atmosphere, and a dry air inlet near the top of said tank. I

4. A device of the character described comprising a liquid holding tank, a compartment adjacent said tank,'said compartment bein in communication with the tank and with t e atmosphere, a dry air inlet near the top of said tank, and a moist air ,outlet also near the top of said tank. a

5. A device of the character described comprising a liquid holding tank, a compartment adjacent said tank, said compartment being in communication with the tank 65 and with the atmosphere, a dry air inlet spaced from the bottom of the tank, and a valve controlled moist air outlet also spaced from the bottom of the tank.

6. A device of the character described comprising a liquid holding tank, a compartment adjacent said tank, said compartment being in communication with the tank and with the atmosphere, a dry air inlet near the top of the tank and a valve controlled moist air outlet also near the top of the tank.

7. A device of the character described comprising. a cylindrical liquid holding tank, and a narrow, arcuate compartment located at one side of thetank and near its bottom, said compartment having a hole near its bottom for opemng communication with the tank, and a hole near its top for opening communication with the atmosphere.

8. A device of the character described of'holes near its bottom for opening communication with the tank, and a hole near its top for openmg communication with the atmosphere.

9. A device of the character described comprising a cylindrical liquid holding tank, and a narrow, arcuate compartment located at one side of the tank and near its bottom, said compartment having a series of holes near its bottom for opening communication with the tank, a hole near its top for opening communication with the atmosphere, and a dry air inlet near the top of the tank.

10. A device of the character described comprising a liquid holding tank, a compartment adjacent the bottom of said tank, said compartment beingin communication with the tankne'ar the bottom of the compartment and in communication with the atmosphere near the top of the compartment, a dry air inlet near the top of the tank, and a a moist air outlet near the top of the tank.

11. A device of the character described comprising a liquid holding tank, a compartment adjacent the bottom of said tank,

said compartment being in communication with the tank near the bottom of the compartment and in communication with the atmosphere near the top of the compartment, a

dry air inlet near the top of the tank, and a valve controlled moist air outlet near the top I of the tank.

12; A device of the character described comprising a liquid holdingtank, acompartment adjacent the bottom" of said tank,d25

said compartment being in communication with the tank near the bottom of the compartment and in communication with the ata dry air inlet near the top of the tank, and a valve controlled moist air outlet near the top of the tank, for automatically regulating the 5 flow of moist air from the tank.

13. A. device of the character described comprising a liquid holding tank, a compartment adjacent said tank, said compartment being in communication With thetank and with the atmosphere, a dry air inlet near the 10 top of said tank, and a tube extending from said dry air inlet into the tank.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name this 9th day of April. 1917.

JOHN C. MAGNESS. 

